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Feedback comments for LD43
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | samh's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 4 14:26:59 | The Gods Are Angry | ♥ 0 | Nice little journey. I found myself advancing hesitantly. The mood is nicely rendered, great attention to detail here. I liked the thunder effect. If you wish to fix a minor typo: one of the notes says “themeslves”. | |
| Dec 4 14:46:03 | 19m 04s | Pew! Pew! | ♥ 0 | It’s hard! I kept trying and trying but couldn’t beat the game. But it’s addictive, I will probably try again later. I like the PICO-8 style in general and it’s nice to have music even if it loops a bit early. I found some situations a bit unfair; like here, I had just fired the super missile (I know I should have sacrificed it!) but for some reason one metal box still killed me (the others in front of me were properly destroyed). bug-pewpew.png |
| Dec 4 16:31:51 | 1h 45m | Sacrifices Must Be Made | ♥ 3 | I spent fare more than the 10-15 minutes trying and I still have no idea how to beat the last game without exploiting the warren bug. |
| Dec 4 17:17:38 | 45m 47s | The Time Gnelf and the Quest for the Missing Golden Cogs | ♥ 1 | Make everything 3 times faster and i’ll play it again and again! |
| Dec 4 17:40:43 | 23m 05s | Stolen Soul | ♥ 1 | I really liked the intro sequence, the pixel art, and the animations. I had problems with fighting where there was considerable delay between my clicks and the attack, which made combat very difficult. Also there was no visual feedback when hitting the final boss so I didn’t know I was actually fighting until it started spawning critters. Needs some polishing but overall a good entry! Congrats. |
| Dec 4 19:31:59 | 1h 51m | Tiima's Sacrifice | ♥ 1 | This is a cute little management game. The mood and the artwork has that Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley feel. I lost very early on in my first run, because I ran out of animals as I was trying every item in the store… in my second run I was very careful to have as many animals as possible and just use them for the minimal amount of food and for buying extra villagers. This allowed me to finish the game and go to that fancy island with kittens! The music is a bit repetitive but still nice 😄 I must admit that by the end I was just ignoring the hints, because they were often frustrating: for instance I had the hint “it’s a cow” then two other hints would be “it’s not a chicken” and “it’s not a pig”… or three hints would be about size… I understand they’re just randomly generated but maybe it would not be too difficult to make them a bit more helpful. One additional nitpick: it’s boring to have to close the animal details window, I would really appreciate if clicking outside of the window could close it, too 😁 Overall a nice game, interesting enough that I finished it, and well within the theme. |
| Dec 4 20:16:46 | 44m 47s | CUTE ROBOTS | ♥ 0 | Extra fun points for the ability to talk to robots! I got to kill the final boss but I made sure not to send the robots that had cool names, so that I could keep them around at the end. There is something that seems lacking in the mechanics; after a while there’s enough resources to build about anything, and it’s just a matter of browsing quickly in the menus to build and kill robots… maybe it shouldn’t be as easy? I don’t know. |
| Dec 4 22:37:19 | 2h 20m | Down Below | ♥ 0 | Excellent level design! Only a few things were slightly frustrating: the camera that does not go low enough to see some traps, and the general slippery feel. But once used to it, it’s really all right. The story itself fits well with the theme and the overall design, you really got inspired here. |
| Dec 4 22:48:52 | 11m 33s | Lost In The Flames | ♥ 1 | Nice little entry, overall the graphics are nice for a PICO-8 game. They have an old Paperboy feel, I think. The navigation was a bit awkward because in some rooms you can go outside the screen at the far top right and you don’t really know what is happening there. I got 6/6 and 8/10 but I don’t really know what I missed. Well, at least I got the important items :-) As mentioned above, maybe having a list of the rescued objects could be nice? I suppose the two unimportant objects I rescued were the burnt food and the medicine, but I don’t remember the others… two picture frames I think, the fridge magnets, the antique radio… |
| Dec 5 23:00:35 | 24h 11m | Dungeon Clicker | ♥ 2 | Help! The game does not want to end! please-end.png |
| Dec 6 00:02:12 | 1h 01m | Void Light | ♥ 2 | Impressive visuals and variety, you’re becoming very skilled at that exercise! You’ll be happy to know that the rendering works fine on my integrated Intel GPU, even though it’s a bit slow from time to time (especially the forest). |
| Dec 7 21:56:22 | 45h 54m | Try | ♥ 1 | The story is short but somewhat pleasant, I thought it had some kind of Stanley Parable vibe to it. It goes from oh easy, to why am I doing this, to bah I don’t even care whether that level is possible I just give up. I don’t even know if there is even a point to solving the levels? 😄 |
| Dec 8 21:26:39 | 23h 30m | Omelettes | ♥ 1 | Excellent design. I wish there was a solution for level 21 somewhere because I kinda get most of the idea but can’t afford to spend enough time putting all the pieces together… *edit:* nevermind, I couldn’t sleep so I eventually solved it 😆 |
| Dec 9 13:36:30 | 16h 09m | ROBO-KEY | ♥ 1 | Excellent level design, it made me wish for even more interesting combinations. Level 20 was really perfect, it seems like you really made sure no other solution could work! I am personally a Roborally fan and Robo-key certainly brought back memories, too… Just a few minor issues to report: when restarting a level, the middle command slot was cleared; and the visual feedback when driving on walls was not very clear. |
| Dec 9 14:05:24 | 28m 54s | Sacrificio Inc. | ♥ 1 | A very good entry, the looks are very polished. You may be able to improve the PC controls by allowing to slide several blocks at the same time. The level design however was a bit lacking (I know designing puzzle levels is hard, so I don’t blame you! I just hope you can work on better levels for a future release). I thought that only the last level was actually challenging. Most puzzles (except level 7) seem to have a single solution, so it’s pretty easy to guess the final position by starting from the end. It could be interesting to have more than one free tile beside the sacrificial pit in order to increase the complexity. |
| Dec 10 21:17:22 | 31h 11m | Memento Morty | ♥ 1 | I concur with everyone else here, the concept is very promising and the level design is good. Wish there were more levels! I’m pretty sure if you also find some time to polish the graphics and animations you’ll end up with a really great game. |
| Dec 10 22:15:16 | 57m 54s | Diaball | ♥ 1 | The overall quality is really impressive, spectacular particle effects, even the end game screen has custom animated drops… I just wished there were more varied puzzles, or maybe a couple more mechanics, such as moving parts in the world… because at the end it felt like the concept had been exhausted. But very good puzzles nonetheless! |
| Dec 10 22:42:26 | 27m 10s | Roustabout | ♥ 2 | One can really see that a lot of effort was put in this entry. The artwork is nice, there is a map, little background animations… even a credit screen (which I have been unable to leave… no clicks or buttons seemed to work). The mechanics are really interesting, I think they’re the basis for some really nice arcade/puzzle game, but may need some polishing: everything feels a bit slow, and I was often stuck because of what seemed to be tiny offsets smaller than a pixel, so it was hard to see what object was in the way. Maybe snapping objects to nearest pixel (or grid) position after moving them could help with that. Also having the space key toggle drag on/off was confusing at times; have you maybe tried the variant where holding space drags objects, and releasing it goes back to free movement? As for the music and SFX, I thought they were quite pretty and fit well with the game. Congrats! |
| Dec 10 23:15:14 | 32m 48s | Room44 | ♥ 2 | Not much I can add that you haven’t already covered in your postmortem. Overall a really great entry. The reduced interactions and the fact that characters do not change their dialogue options when clues are accumulated are a bit frustrating, but I obviously understand the time constraints… Maybe just a few objects here and there that are unrelated to the quest but give insight about the everyday life on the ship could have added some depth. Other than that, the graphics are really gorgeous, I really love that style. One minor nitpick: the pitch of the dialogue sound is quite high and distracting, I had to turn it down a little and then could no longer hear the music… |
| Dec 10 23:39:05 | 23m 51s | Soul Traveller | ♥ 1 | I enjoyed the run and took time to explore everything. Even got the hidden explorer message! :-) It was a bit short but properly teases the mechanics, and it may become something quite nice if you continue development on this game. Overall it has that unfinished touch while still remaining an enjoyable experience. The graphics are very nice; I concur with the above comments about it having a bit of Limbo feel mixed with Super Meat Boy. The references are pretty obvious I think 😁 I’ll keep an eye on the forthcoming developments! |
| Dec 11 00:11:00 | 31m 55s | Blob buster | ♥ 0 | Reminds me of the old Pang! game I played on the Amiga, except with more degrees of freedom… quite interesting, and becomes really difficult when the screen gets crowded. The artwork is really, really cute. Obviously some SFX are lacking, I hope you can put some in a post-compos version. Also I wish there was a way to get extra lives at some point, otherwise I’m not sure I can ever reach the end! Or maybe allow to replay levels that one has finished at least once? |
| Dec 11 22:50:18 | 22h 39m | The Path of Sacrifices | ♥ 1 | I can’t really rate the graphics but the maps themselves are nice. There is only one puzzle but it forces the player to try a lot of objects and one can see that you put a lot of work into the writing and then ran out of time :-) Too bad you couldn’t put more content in this entry! I sacrificed smell, by the way. |
| Dec 11 23:17:54 | 27m 36s | ShamanProtector | ♥ 1 | Wow, at first I built all the towers I could using all the wood on the map, and thought the monsters weren’t being a big challenge… but then their number exploded and I was quickly overwhelmed despite sacrificing villagers to upgrade towers. I wish there was some sort of renewable resource somewhere, for instance villagers respawning or being recruited, or trees regrowing… I don’t know, something to make the game a bit easier 😓 I know how it’s like doing balancing minutes before the jam deadline, so I can’t blame you 😀 Other than that, the graphics are nice. The controls, as mentioned above, are a bit weird: I think tower building is convoluted, maybe right-clicking anywhere could be enough to build a tower, instead of having to move the mouse all over the screen to reach that button. Another suggestion: some kind of feedback about the critters’ health may be nice. Also, I thought it could be funny and an interesting addition if the character could help hit critters, even if not very hard. |
| Dec 11 23:38:47 | 20m 53s | QUELTRIS | ♥ 2 | Interesting mechanics! You gotta play quite a lot before your brain starts seeing patterns… I got 72900 on my first attempt but clearly I was getting better towards the end. The music is a bit repetitive but that makes it stressful which is a nice addition for that kind of game :-) Suggestion for an instant improvement: have difficulty levels that set the rate at which the tiles are sacrificed. |
| Dec 11 23:52:34 | 13m 47s | Naixalag | ♥ 1 | The idea is nice, but it’s really difficult! I realised it works better if two people use the keyboard, one for the swarm, one for the free roaming alien. Otherwise you kinda have to… sacrifice one or the other :-) The game always tells me that everyone is dead but I still have a few ships, is it a bug? Or is it because a bullet hit my main ship and somehow I did not notice it? |
| Dec 12 00:02:27 | 9m 53s | The Greater Good | ♥ 1 | Uber short indeed 🤣 But you still managed to tell a moving story, and to make a platformer where jumping works properly. Also the monochrome pixel art is honestly good. Congrats, and I hope you get more time for the next event! |
| Dec 13 21:54:54 | 45h 52m | Deadline of the Dead | ♥ 1 | That was a*maze*-ing! I loved the the artwork, the lighting, the humour, the pace, the level design… Everything is really well executed, one can see that you are experienced game creators who know their tools, and know how to work together and ship a game 😆 I personally found the game a bit difficult, to be honest. Maybe I was too much in a hurry and wasn’t focused enough but I really died a lot… I think I did 15 jobs in my best run. But then I have always been bad at such games (I remember dying a lot in Alien Breed in the 90s). Clearly one of the best, most polished entries this year. Congrats. |
| Dec 13 22:44:02 | 49m 08s | Sacrifice Pit | ♥ 0 | The idea is interesting but as mentioned above it’s a bit tedious to walk all the way again each time. Maybe you could have a teleporter at the dungeon entrance, which takes you to the last activated candle or last opened door so that each time you die you only have to walk to the teleporter. I’m not sure how well this would integrate with your level design because I did not manage to reach the end, it was a bit hard 😅 I concur that sound would help a lot! I suggest [sfMaker](https://www.leshylabs.com/apps/sfMaker/) which generates sound effects that would go really well with your old school pixel art style. Also some additional tips: - move the camera a bit lower so that the player can see better what is below - you could try to animate the character only when pressing left or right, this would look nicer while at the same time giving better feedback to the player. Also I am not sure this was the expected route? I could reach this point by jumping against the wall at the third candle 😄 coll2.png coll.png |
| Dec 15 12:20:18 | 37h 36m | Salty Horde | ♥ 1 | I thought this was pretty fun. I would have liked to know what my health status was, and how many other towers I could build, so that I could decide between running around or building towers. It was sometimes frustrating that the towers seemed to miss when shooting. The level in the dark was quite hard, and an interesting gameplay addition! Other than that I liked the happy art style :-) |
| Dec 25 23:25:40 | 251h 05m | Downfall | ♥ 1 | Very polished entry. The level design is interesting and I’d have liked to retry some levels in order to save 3 cities, but I could not find a way to retry the current level; is there a level browser or something like that? |
| Dec 26 22:50:43 | 23h 25m | Sven | ♥ 1 | I did all three endings and I liked a lot of things in this game: the comic style, the story, the story that the environment tells that differs slightly (such as everyone running away while the narrator just tells Sven’s story), the artwork, the no-kill ending, the general mood, the constant surprises such as the shmup sequences… The theme is only present as a story element and not really as a gameplay mechanic, but I guess that still counts. A very good entry overall. |
| Dec 26 23:08:52 | 18m 09s | DerpSpace | ♥ 1 | Mission accomplished in 10 minutes! I really like the SFX and the radio static voice filter you added, it makes for a great mood. The graphics are cute, I like these astronauts and the planets! I have no idea what blackholes look like because I didn’t dare approaching one, though :-) The gameplay is not very challenging if you go slowly (I found out that it was a good strategy for not exploding 😆) but it’s still fun. Maybe it lacks a little something that will force the player to take more risks, and maybe a little extra to fit the theme a bit better! |
| Dec 27 11:35:10 | 12h 26m | Sachristmas ! | ♥ 0 | I like the graphics in this entry. Very cute, but also very hard! I could never satisfy all the children, I even had a run where none of them got what they wanted. I would say this is the Dark Souls of travelling salesmen! But also a very nice metaphor of Christmas suitable for explaining to kids why they never get what they wanted. |
| Dec 27 11:37:40 | 2m 30s | Tama Gone Wrong | ♥ 0 | An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance) |
| Dec 27 11:51:31 | 13m 51s | DEMON HELL | ♥ 1 | I am not good at this kind of games because I suck at using a mouse, but I really like the pace, music and aesthetics, it makes for a great atmosphere. I would probably watch longplays of this game just to see how far people can go. So, how about 1) gamepad support and 2) a difficulty setting? 😅 |
| Dec 27 11:59:46 | 8m 15s | Incaya | ♥ 0 | One can see that there was a lot of effort put in there, congrats! I really like the low-poly aesthetics, small animations, and the soft pastel colours. Even the font is well chosen. Of course I could babble about what’s missing but probably the #1 thing is (as already mentioned by others) better visual feedback on what’s happening… maybe just a countdown of enemy units, or some kind of progress bars for comparison. Also thanks for providing an HTML build. |
| Dec 27 12:14:47 | 15m 01s | Quantic Paouf IV | ♥ 0 | This was visually very impressive! Much much better than your first iterations that I saw. I like the multiple shader effects you added, it works very well. One minor nitpick would be that the particles aren’t very visible, and in general things that happen (particles dying, health diminishing) could be made more obvious. Also when the black holes started to move I think I had trouble understanding where I was because of all the parallax scrolling happening… but maybe that’s part of the expected difficulty curve. Anyway, it’s a great entry with a great atmosphere. |
| Dec 27 12:44:36 | 29m 49s | bouncy arts | ♥ 0 | I found this very hard to control without a mouse (I have a laptop with just a trackpoint and a trackpad) but I still managed to complete about 10 levels (spamming the left button to crawl walls a bit more than the level design expected it, I guess) before it became really too difficult. The mechanics are simple and the puzzles are rich and complex — exactly what I like in a puzzle game. I will definitely revisit it when I have access to a mouse, unless you add gamepad support one day? It does not look like it would be much of a problem to control the jump direction with a stick. Congrats for this very polished entry. |
| Dec 27 14:19:37 | 1h 35m | Fenik | ♥ 1 | Cute little entry. One can see that you had planned for much more (with the village shops, the gold, etc., even a mini map, wow!) and ran out of time… (like all of us 😆). One thing that was bothering me was the UI that was hiding everything when I was going down, and maybe the dialogues that popped while I was fighting, but other than that, it was really nice. I finished the game twice to see a bit of the other abilities, and I was sad that my Phœnix left me each time. The music and sound effects were pleasing. @sarwin I thought I was stuck there, too, but there is actually a double jump! |
